Saturday, November 8, 2008

In recent days some journos getting hike in salaries very quickly. Because of competition all channels are searching for seniors and talent fellows (some organizations totally depending on juniors; exemption for those people). If people really talented they may get big hike. But recently one lady journalist(?) from NTV went to SAKSHI for interview. There she got an offer letter also. Then she came back to Naredra Chowdary and showed her offer letter. After that she got a promotion in VANITHA TV with hike. Is this journalism or blackmailism?

Bottom Line is Mr. Srinivas Reddy who encouraged her for joining in sakshi is now facing very embarassing situation...Star news asked to shut down all its regional offices. Aajtak has taken a stand to keep only a single reporter in States and asked its staff to use only one mobile phone. Sahara and Times now are following the suite. 3,000 electronic media professionals across India are expected to loose their jobs before Jan 2009. In the state, HYtv, Inews, Rajnews and CBS are history now. HMtv is in two minds. AJtv and IVRtv are non starters. Among the existing channels Ntv and TV5 are wantedly loosing their senior staff. Both of them are loosing Rs.1.5 Crore per month. Maatv is up for sale and bargaining with Sony and Star has remained a non starter.

These are the hard times. Lets see how may will become unemployed by this year end.

The staff who have been working with the Sun Network enjoying benefits like Bonus despite meagre salaries are now worried about the latest development. Some of the staff have already searched for new jobs and left the organisation but those who didnt find a suitable job are still continuing. It has to be seen whether the new agency retains all of them or jettison some of them. The inevitable has happened. All these days, the Geminimanagement has been telling its employees that the staff will not lose their jobs. Now that the channel has been leased out to an agency, all the Gemini News staff have been asked to tender their resignation. The only assurance being given is that they will be given appointment orders on behalf of the new agency

Monday, November 3, 2008

Malli story repeat ayyindi. NTV, TV5 were allowed to attend a private party organised by a Bangalore based company. And just for one invitation to attend a small private party NTV Chairman had to call people associated with the party organisers and after repeated requests from Mr Choudary, NTV staff were allowed inside. For TV5, no contacts, no recommendation, no entry.

But do we really have to do this. It is heard that most companies have decided not to invite NTV reporters to entertainment nites considering misbehaviour of Shiva and Sunil who bad mouthed organisers during previous occassions.

Today's advertisement in Andhra Jyothi said that MAHAA TV is Mr. I.Venkata Rao's own channel. Since his books are also published by "Monika" and the network is also named after Monika, people are made to believe that Mr. IVR is the chief promoter of the channel, though it is rumoured that Mr. Nama Nageswara Rao is behind this venture. There is another news doing its round saying that a retired police officer is the chief promoter. The launch is expected in February ( Mr. IVR is hopeful of launching in January itself ) but it will be herculian task considering the experience of Mr. Ramachandra Murthy who has been struggling hard to bring out hmtv for the past one year.

Mr. Katta Shekhar Reddy will be the second in command and the key persons in the team have already been selected. It is also known that Mr. Vinay is the Chief Producer for this channel. Mr. Rama Rao ( Formerly with Andhra Jyothi at Guntur ) will be the Input Editor, Mr. Narayana ( ETV) will be the Hyderabad Bureau Chief and Mr. Keshav (ETV ) will be the Output Editor. Some more ETV staff members have been finalised but the names are yet to be known.

Interestingly, Mr. Sivaram Prasad of Narne Group is also planning to launch his channel in January. He has already ordered for the equipment and the installation is likely to be completed by the end of November. The recruitment will be from 1st December, by which time everything will be in nplace and those who join can start working immediately. His experience helped a lot and the planning is likely to prove that he can bring out his channel in January without burdening the promoters heavily with the unproductive pre launch expenses. ( Sakshi and HMTV are now spending huge sums on salaries without any tangible productive work.)

As for the other news channels waiting for the launch, Sakshi HDTV, Zee 24 Gantalu, Asianet Telugu News are likely to be aired in January taking into consideration the pace of work going on. iNews and hmtv are planning for November launch, but insiders say that only test signal is possible since the content trials are still in a preliminary stage. Heads of these two channels are under pressure since the launch is getting delayed.